a coherent collection of random statements regarding God, words and tunes

And so it ends.... WAY too quickly....

Well, it was fun while it lasted. I went in thinking the Sox were the better team, but that the September Rox had a legitimate shot. Even the June Rox who took 2 of 3 from the Sox would've given game.

Unfortunately, after a long layoff, it was the April (or at best, July) Rox who showed up against a Sox team that was hitting on all cylinders. 

It hurts right now, but if you'd told me next April would start with the announcement "Here are your 2007 National League Champion Colorado Rockies," I'd've signed up for that and died laughing in a heartbeat. I honestly thought at the beginning of the year that this team was good enough to play meaningful games in September, but the rest of the ride (despite its abrupt and painful stop) was incredible.

And anyway, this column says it way better than I could: http://mvn.com/mlb-rockies/2007/10/28/the-end-of-something-special/.

Probably back to music next week. Why didn't ANYONE mention there was a new Steve Earle album out? Yeah, I'll be processing that for ya's, in all likelihood.

Posted by: burninglight at 14:34 | link | comments (1)

And so it begins....

         

I believe no further comment is needed.

(And no, "that's so gay" isn't required either.... )

It's the talent vs. the team.

East vs. West.

The haves vs. the have-despite-having-nots.

The established stars vs. the rising stars. 

The Green Monster vs. the humidor.

Pedroia vs. Tulo. (this matchup is arguably the most fascinating)

The AL Cy Young vs. the most effective staff in the NL for the last two months.

Manny Being Manny vs. Matt Being the NL MVP (if voters have half a brain, anyway).

Francona vs. Clint (frankly, THIS is the most troubling matchup of the bunch ).

Passionate (and a tad loopy) Papelbon vs. Calm and Cool Corpas.

Schilling's big mouth vs. the team that shut up the rest of the NL in scarily efficient fashion this playoff season, and hopefully will have the same effect as a Congressional subcommittee on Kurt this time as well.

The team of destiny vs.... THE TEAM OF DESTINY???

Who knows. That's why they play the games.

Someone's gotta win. And someone's gotta lose. But it's safe to say the Rox won't "go Tribe" on us (I'm sorry, but how pathetic was THAT?). It's gonna be a good series. I don't see it being any less than six either way.

And thus, it's time for one more miracle.

Or, perhaps in more mathematical terms:

("realistically" thinking Sox have a slight edge, and win in 7) - (2 for still pinching myself that these Rox is for real, and thus probably grossly underestimating them yet again) = Rox in 6.

And then, maybe back to music. The only new thing to add here is that the new Radiohead is actually pretty decent (not sure if it's review-worthy yet, but it works nicely as background music anyway), and I've never said that about a Radiohead album in toto before. So join the social experiment, pay yr price (including "0") and see what happens.

God, of course, is always there. But you don't always need my inner dialogue on that. Suffice to say, things have been VERY crazy but we've been moving forward. If Satan never attacks a retreating army, then we sure as heck MUST be headed in the right direction.

So anyway and one mo'time into the breach (whatta suck-up):

GO ROX!!!!

Posted by: burninglight at 18:48 | link | comments (4)

The Miracle Continues!

Wow. I haven't felt like this about a baseball game since.... well, since the '86 Bill Buckner game....

And of COURSE, with only broadcast basic cable (no TBS -- no Denver station was showing this???) and a home PC that crashed that morning, I spent my evening out in the car following the whole thing on radio. It was my baseball childhood all over again.

You couldn't've HAD more drama than this.

The probable Cy Young award winner pimpslapped around.

The improbable opposing starter blowing through three innings effortlessly, then having the wheels come off in the fourth, including a grand slam.

A home run that should have allowed the game to end in regulation called a double.

The likely National League MVP totally misplaying a fly ball to let the game tie back up.

Several innings of gutwrenching nothing.

And am I the only one who REALLY wanted to see The Todd either score or knock in the winning run?

I SO did not want to see Babyhead Jr. (i.e., Jorge Julio, spiritual heatballing-choke son of Armando Benitez) out there for the 12th, but that's all that was left (except for a pitcher so bad that he hadn't pitched in 17 days). And sure enough, two hitters, two runs. And another hit after that before the plug was pulled.

Then said awful pitcher comes out and shuts down the side to keep the Rox on life support. In a game full of miracles, the biggest one of all may very well have been: W -- Ramon Ortiz.

Then the all-time saves leader -- who nonetheless has a knack for choking in big games, and had been warming up for five innings and thus was well-prepared for absolute failure -- comes out, and makes the Cy Young's pimpslapping looks tame. In rapid succession, a double (think Kaz Matsui's glad to not be a Met today?), another double (the Rookie of the Year strikes YET AGAIN), and a game-tying triple by said fly-misplaying MVP in a huge shot of redemption.

Then, The Slide.

And after 163 games and 13 innings, the Colorado Rockies board a plane to face the almost-as-unlikely Philadelphia Phillies. I'll be shocked if it's not a five-game series. Neither team is capable of doing things the easy way.

And pray for the Phillies player responsible for losing Game 5. You KNOW he's gonna have to enter the witness protection program if he even manages to get out of the building. Again, I'm from Jersey -- trust me, I KNOW how this goes.

You probably don't need any more of my version of things that that, but here's a few other good versions (including a very good article on why Matt Holliday was safe either way -- see especially the rulebook quote in italics): http://mvn.com/mlb-rockies/).

Onward! Go Rox some more! Win 11 more for The Todd!!!

Posted by: burninglight at 18:02 | link | comments (3)